Encouraging a Small Church

I am speaking this weekend at the Roseville Church of Christ. My friend Richard Inyang, the regular preacher there, is in Cameroon where the locals are shooting at each other. I am concerned about Richard. Besides the church, he has a wife and three children here and a mother and father in Nigeria, next door to Cameroon. Nigeria is where the soldiers swoop in and kidnap whole schools of teenaged girls. Pray for his safe return and for the safety of his family and friends.

Richard asked me to speak words of encouragement to the Roseville church. He didn’t say they were discouraged; I am reading between the lines. I think a lot of small churches are discouraged. What should I tell them?

I can say that God is good, that Jesus saves, that he is coming back to rescue us, like he did the nation of Israel from Egypt, and I probably will mention all those things, but they know all that. Yet they are discouraged.

I am guessing they are discouraged because they have misinterpreted the mission of the church. They think we have been charged with saving the world and they see us losing ground in that fight. “Why aren’t we growing?” “Why aren’t we able to influence our neighbors?"

And perhaps they are focused on their personal situations and wish they were better. “How am I going to make next month’s rent?” “Why isn’t God rescuing me right now from my circumstances?”

I have to think about what the message should be. What do you think?